So remember when I mentioned that band-aid bra?
Well, bras and I have had a very long and complicated 10(ish)-year relationship, but I think it's time we go on a break.
We started off really tight (in more ways than one) around the age of 10 or so, and that was a time when I really wanted a bra that I didn't need. You feel kind of left out when that one girl in your fifth-grade class already has something there and you're stuck with a washboard chest. No, not washboard abs, a washboard chest. So I got the only bra that fits a washboard chest: a training bra. Training bras are like your first job: you don't really have any qualifications and you're pretty young, but you somehow get one anyway.
Fast forward to around two years later, and I've still got nothing. My family and I were all sitting around the dinner table and I asked where the breast of the chicken actually was, and my brother told me I probably couldn't figure it out because I didn't have any either. Great, thanks.
My two best lady friends didn't come around to stay until I was almost out of high school, and even then I was just pushing up A's with as much padding as I could find.
This was me, but I definitely didn't stop at tissues. There were socks, bathing suit pads and any other soft, stuffy thing I could find.
Long story, even longer, I have been begging and pleading the boob gods to bless me with something. ANYTHING. As my luck would have it, eventually I was blessed with the two best friends I wouldn't give up for anything.
However, as of pretty recently, I decided that all those years of pushing and propping up, they needed some time to breathe. So one day, I just stopped wearing a bra, and now I'm addicted. It's great. It's so freeing. It's a billion times more comfortable than wearing one.
But the most important thing I learned is that it's all about the choice and what you feel best in. I've learned to love what I've been given, without any padding or enhancements.
My current relationship with my bras is definitely an open one. We're always off and on and I've never been happier. I'm suddenly realizing how little people actually care about what my "girls" look like.
Look how happy she is! Bra-less and free.
It's so much better to have a choice. The world is your oyster! If you feel like wearing a bra and showing off some dope cleavage, wear one. If you're feeling them, let them show and work their wonderful magic. If you don't feel like wearing a bra but also don't feel like it's a nipple day, there are band-aids, my personal favorite.
If you're still feeling hesitant, there's the modern day training bra, the bralette. Only this time you're training to free the nipple, not conceal it. What a beautiful full circle that is!
At the end of the day, it's about you and what you're feeling. Simple as that.
Yeah yeah, some people are like, "Ew, nipples are gross." But as Queen Bey herself would say:
